venezuala

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Go To Venezuela, You Idiot!

 

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

by Jeff Cohen

 

I don't usually take the advice of rightwingers. But I did this time.

After receiving inflamed email messages from dozens of angry rightists

that I should get the hell out of the USA and go to Venezuela, I

accepted their challenge and flew to Caracas.

 

" Would you like me to start a fund to ship your ass down there, Comrade

Cohen? "

 

What had provoked the often-abusive emailers was my widely-circulated

2005 Internet column urging U.S. residents to buy their gasoline at

Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company. I called for a

Citgo BUY-cott, to protest Bush's interventionist foreign policy while

supporting innovative anti-poverty programs in Venezuela. (Last winter,

Citgo started a program that provided discounted home-heating oil to

low-income families in the U.S.)

 

" Hey moron, if you hate America so much and love Venezuela, why don't

you go there? "

 

I'm glad I listened to the conservative chorus. In late June, I headed

to Venezuela with a fact-finding delegation sponsored by the respected

U.S. human rights group, Witness for Peace. The grueling trip covered

much ground and all sides of Venezuela's social/political landscape. It

is a complex country, headed by sometimes volatile President Hugo

Chavez, a leftist and harsh Bush critic who was first elected in 1998.

 

As soon as I returned home, I headed to the nearest Citgo to fill up my

tank -- more committed than ever to send a few dollars toward

Venezuela's poor.

 

" You, sir, are as un-American as they come. "

 

For decades, Venezuela's vast oil wealth had been squandered and

hoarded by its light-skinned elite, while most Venezuelans -- largely

of indigenous, African and mixed descent -- lived in dire poverty.

Today, oil revenue from Citgo and elsewhere is funneled into social

programs (called " missions " ) to benefit the country's poor majority.

They're reminiscent of FDR's New Deal programs. . .born of our economic

bust. But Venezuela's missions are fueled by a boom -- a boom in oil

prices that is likely to persist for years.

 

" Because of Chavez, communism is thriving in South America. "

 

>From what I could see, capitalism is thriving. Foreign oil interests

continue to profit handsomely from Venezuelan petrol, but they now pay

a fairer share of taxes and royalties. So do the 80 McDonald's

restaurants in Venezuela, which were briefly shut down last year over

alleged tax cheating.

 

Multinational companies and the old elite are doing fine in today's

Venezuela. So well that some Venezuelan leftists denounce Chavez --

despite his talk of building " 21st century socialism " -- as a tool of

corporate imperialism.

 

Like other oil-exporting countries, Venezuela in the past allowed its

domestic productive economy to atrophy. Besides oil, it produced little

-- with food largely imported. Today, people in poor areas are

organizing themselves into productive and agricultural co-ops,

supported by low-interest government loans. We visited a federal bank

that underwrites women-run businesses nationwide.

 

My guess is that if Chavez succeeds in Venezuela -- a big " if " in a

country of endemic corruption, poverty and crime, in the backyard of

the U.S. superpower -- its economic system will end up looking more

like Sweden than Cuba.

 

What's not debatable is that the poor have found hope in the Chavez

administration -- which is why he's perhaps the most popular president

in our hemisphere. So popular that Chavez critics in the U.S.

government and Venezuelan opposition concede that they won't be able to

defeat him in December when he seeks reelection.

 

" The trouble with all you liberals is that you're anti-American and

hate democracy. "

 

Participation in democracy is booming in Venezuela under Chavez. That's

partly due to polarization, but also because so many poor people feel

empowered enough for the first time to get active in politics. A

massive 2005 Latinobarometro poll conducted in 18 Latin American

countries showed that Venezuelans are among the top in preference for

democracy over all other forms of government, in satisfaction with how

their democracy is functioning, and in belief that their country is

" totally democratic. "

 

" The oil money never gets to the poor. . . . You must have been paid by

Chavez to write what you wrote. "

 

Across Venezuela, it's hard to miss the new investment in public

education. Schools are being upgraded in urban and rural areas and are

required to offer free breakfasts and lunches, arts, music and

after-school activities. Unlike the U.S., these are well-funded

mandates. Illiteracy has been virtually wiped out, according to UNESCO,

thanks to adult education that has penetrated the poorest

neighborhoods.

 

In poor communities, federally-subsidized stores called " mercals " sell

food at half the market price. In the capital of Caracas, thousands of

government-funded soup kitchens offer free lunches every weekday to the

indigent; our delegation was headquartered in a church that served 150

free lunches per day. Across the country, new housing is being built to

replace shantytown " ranchos " that so many Venezuelans live in.

 

Thousands of free ( " Barrio Adentro " ) medical clinics have been built

inside neighborhoods that never had doctors before -- so many clinics

that you can spot them from the highway. These are staffed largely by

doctors from Cuba; in return, Cuba receives Venezuelan oil. When we

asked a community leader how local residents reacted to the Cuban

doctors, he explained that most Venezuelan doctors won't serve in poor

barrios: " People in our community don't care whether the doctors are

French, German, Canadian, Mexican or Cuban -- as long as they're here

to help. "

 

" Go to Venezuela and kiss up to the anti-American dictator. "

 

If Venezuela is a dictatorship, it must be the first in world history

in which the opposition controls most of the media. And the first in

which demonstrations occur regularly outside the presidential palace

(organized by various groups, especially low-income activists

complaining about broken promises and government inefficiency).

 

Dissent is alive and well in Venezuela. Any casual viewer can see

anti-Chavez criticism all over TV, the country's dominant medium and

largely in the hands of conservative business interests. The opposition

used its power on TV to support a short-lived military coup in 2002

(strike 1), an employers' oil lockout in 2002-3 (strike 2) and a failed

recall election in 2004 (strike 3). Chavez won nearly 60% in the recall

vote -- which was monitored closely by international observers.

 

Efforts to bring down Chavez -- through democratic and undemocratic

means -- have been supported by the Bush administration. Which makes it

ironic that the American Family Association, a U.S. religious

ultra-right group, has organized a Citgo boycott on the basis of its

Internet hoax: " Venezuela Dictator Vows to Bring Down U.S. Government. "

The headline tends to reverse reality; Chavez has made no such vow. But

AFA true believers have bombarded my email inbox for months with the

hoax.

 

" Try Jesus. If you don't like Him, the devil will always take you

back.. . . .What terrorist group are you affiliated with? "

 

If you think the U.S. is politically polarized, you haven't been to

Venezuela. Clinton's impeachment by the religious right over sex is

child's play compared to what's gone on in Venezuela, where Chavez has

survived near-death experiences at the hands of a conservative

opposition that has never accepted his presidency.

 

Columnist Paul Krugman talks of a " New Class War " in our country. In

Venezuela, it's old-fashioned class war. Political and media

confrontation between Chavez and the opposition is vicious, personal

and bare-knuckled. While independent human rights monitors in Venezuela

complain about isolated cases of government intimidation of opposition

figures and journalists, they scoff at claims that democracy is in

jeopardy or that dictatorship is coming.

 

Today, Chavez is popular (his approval ratings dwarf Bush's),

rambunctious in whipping up his base against both domestic opponents

and Bush, and prone to hyperbole in his hours of extemporaneous

speaking each day. He has waged a war of words against U.S. Empire and

Bush, whom he calls " Mr. Danger. " But that's polite in light of

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld having compared Chavez to Adolph Hitler.

Or Rev. Pat Robertson having called for Chavez to be assassinated.

 

" You can write your articles about how great he [Chavez] is, but I

know, as well as other true Americans, that he is not a good man and he

does need to be taken out of power as soon as possible. "

 

To me, the issue is less about Chavez than about the social initiatives

his government has unleashed. When I first wrote about Venezuela 14

months ago, I urged a simple economic action: filling up at Citgo so

that our money at the pump helps Venezuela's poor instead of Middle

East oiligarchs. That remains a good idea.

 

Nowadays, I also urge political action: that we contact Congress to

demand that the U.S. stay out of Venezuela's political contest. That's

up to Venezuelans to decide. Not us. The U.S. should stop its efforts

to back the conservative opposition and cease all ( " National Endowment

for Democracy " ) funding of Venezuelan groups.

 

And finally, I want to join my rightwing critics in one recommendation:

Go to Venezuela. If you can arrange it, examine the social

transformations for yourself. Study Spanish there. See the decades of

poverty, neglect and corruption that led to the election of Hugo Chavez

-- and whether his government is improving things.

 

There's an added bonus for anyone who can get down there: gasoline at

18 cents per gallon. Expect to hear Venezuelans complaining that the

price is too high.

 

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION

 

Jeff Cohen is a media critic and former TV pundit. His new book, Cable

News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media, can be

pre-ordered at http://jeffcohen.org/.